


we'll still be there when your war is over

by caramelize



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, mentions of suicidal ideation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 19:13:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16024214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramelize/pseuds/caramelize
Summary: Cain and Reinhardtzar have a talk, and the moon is beautiful





	we'll still be there when your war is over

**Author's Note:**

> Shrugs vaguely 
> 
> Spoilers for literally everything, the entire story up until now, and Cain's fate episodes. 
> 
> Please enjoy!

Like something out of a storybook, the full moon hung low over the lake that night, the rippled reflection of it gilding parts of the water in silver. It was pretty, even Reinhardtzar could admit, a placid and peaceful and strange accompaniment to the unrest brewing in the whole city built up along its shores. He could see a good half of it from where he sat, in a hidden alcove set above the palace gardens that was a badly kept secret, but with everyone else attempting to snatch a few hours of uneasy sleep in their own bedrooms, he didn’t think he’d be disturbed. He knew he should be doing the same, but more than extra rest, he wanted some time in solitude. Usually, that meant time alone to train, but he was exhausted already. A gauntlet of fights followed by watching the captain drop off an island to parts unknown. Returning to the capital only to be greeted by the brink of civil war.

The past few days, the past few _hours_ , stretched out until he felt like he’d lived through years instead, an unwelcome phenomenon he hadn’t experienced since Torhid’s aftermath. And maybe that was what had gotten under his skin so badly, but instead of anything else, instead of the Great Wall, or the True King, or what the hell was going to happen to Hal and Baragona and Idelva now, the one image replaying on loop in his mind was how close Cain’s feet were to the edge of the cliff.  


Just as his thoughts had now tipped over into something unpleasant, the earlier breeze had picked up, gaining a chilly edge, a sign for him to get up and wander back indoors, if there wasn’t the sound of footfalls under the rustling of the leaves in the wind. Out of habit, Reinhardtzar tensed, senses categorizing if the source of the noise was a threat or not, but the visitor announced themselves before he could even turn his head. 

“Found you!” Cain sounded out of breath, like he’d ran all the way from his room and then some. Reinhardtzar didn’t remark on it, and simply waited until the other had swanned over to plop down beside him to speak. 

“I didn’t know you’d be looking for me, since you’re supposed to be sleeping right now.” 

“You are too. But who can sleep right now?” Shrugging, like it was merely a fact, Cain leaned back on his palms and fixed his gaze out on the lake. “I’m glad I can’t, if I get this view.” 

“Uh-huh.” Something was up, obviously. Cain tended to isolate when genuinely upset—hell, it was how Reinhardtzar knew where to look for him when Cain was contemplating taking that step over the edge of the island—so if thoughts of the captain and the state of Idelva were keeping him up, he wouldn’t have sought out someone to chat with. But saying so would just earn a deflection, so Reinhardtzar decided to play dumb until a better opening. “I’ll leave you to it, since I was just about to head inside.” 

“Wait—” Cain clutched at his sleeve, which wasn’t surprising, but the flicker of what Reinhardtzar could only categorize as abject panic in Cain’s expression certainly was. Another beat and it was gone, though, smoothed over with a smile not nearly as winning as Cain probably wanted it to be. “Don’t be in such a rush! Keep me company, won’t you? Just for a little while.” 

“I will,” Reinhardtzar said, a tiny drop of satisfaction seeping in when he saw the way Cain’s relief at the acquiescence turned into sheepishness when he added, “if you tell me why you were really looking for me.” 

“I went to say goodnight, and when I saw you weren’t there, I, um, got a little worried.” An understatement, one Cain himself knew must be transparent because he winced the moment the words left his mouth. Suddenly, Cain being breathless earlier made sense. He really must have run the whole way, frantic, and at that thought, guilt prickles, cold and unpleasant in the pit of Reinhardtzar’s stomach. “So I went looking.” 

“Right. All things considered, I guess I should have left a note. Sorry for worrying you.” 

“That—that was a quick apology.” Cain turned his head to blink, wide-eyed at Reinhardtzar in genuine shock, and Reinhardtzar didn’t know if he should be offended at that or not. 

“I know how you must have felt.” That gaping, unfathomable dread and despair. That, too, was much like the aftermath of Torhid, but it had a different tinge to it, a different depth, a different kind of ache. Losing a country, losing his home, was like losing a limb—or an eye, as Reinhardtzar’s case was. It was catastrophic and no one would be the same for it, but everyone would live, and learn to function around the loss. The idea of losing Cain to himself, of him taking that last step over the edge, seemed it’d be more akin to having a vital organ removed, a poor substitute for a heart, or lungs, or blood in his veins left behind. Leona was a walking, talking testament to that; there was a new person you became when the old parts were taken away. 

“How could you possibly know?” Cain glared up at him, true anger darkening his eyes even more than they were deepened in the wan light from the moon and lamps. Reinhardtzar stared back, unflinchingly, waiting out the scant few seconds it took for Cain’s razor sharp mind to put two and two together. His gaze dropped to the ground once he did. “You mean about earlier. You’re still mad about that?” 

“Not mad, Cain. You scared the shit out of me with that stunt.” 

“Oh,” Cain said, voice quiet and small, like all the air had been squeezed out of him at once. He fell silent immediately, recalibrating, and Reinhardtzar let him, watching the way the wind whipped ripples over the lake’s surface. “You’re being really honest.” 

“Yeah. You should try it sometime.” He didn’t really have a choice, he thought, because if it meant Cain would never look down with intent to the abyssal sky that lay below the islands, Reinhardtzar would say anything. Beside him, Cain laughed, the sound startled out of him, tinged with wryness but genuine, and a moment later the warm weight of him pressed up against Reinhardtzar’s side as he leaned in. 

“Probably! I’m—” _Okay, don’t worry,_ was an easy blank for Reinhardtzar to fill, but Cain caught himself before he could be called out on saying a platitude instead of the truth. “I remembered something Abel told me, a long time ago. It was like what you said. I took a deep breath and looked around me.” 

“And?”

“I’m glad I got to see the moon with you tonight.” But Cain was not looking at the moon. He was looking at Reinhardtzar, contemplative, studying without being searching, as though Reinhardtzar was another view to enjoy, another memory in this moment to keep. “I’m glad you’re here.” 

“In my defense,” Reinhardtzar said, slowly. “I didn’t _mean_ to fall off an island.” 

“You just meant to take a blow in my place,” Cain retorted, sullenly. “What were you thinking, Tzar?” 

“I wasn’t.” It had always been as simple as that. There was no calculation in that moment, no ideas about the best strategy, about what his actions would cause. There hadn’t even been any justification to himself in that moment, nothing about how Cain deserved to enjoy the culmination of his revenge, and that’s why he had to be saved. Nothing at all, besides the simple thought that he needed Cain to live, and then his body had moved on its own. “I just didn’t want Gilbert to get that shot in when we promised to leave that place together.” 

“You’re ridiculous.” Cain’s voice came out muffled from where he’d turned his face more into Reinhardtzar’s shoulder, pressing closer and closer, until Reinhardtzar helpfully moved his arm and Cain rested his cheek against Reinhartzar’s chest instead. “You yell at me all the time not to act without thinking.” 

“Well, now we’re even. Unless you wanna lecture me some more?” 

“No. I want to stay here longer and enjoy the view.” Magnanimously, Reinhardtzar did not point out that Cain wasn’t even looking at the moon or the city or the gardens. Instead, he let his hand rest against the top of Cain’s head, a tacit agreement that he could remain where he was for a little while. Even with the chill of the wind, it was comfortable, admittedly, to sit in the quiet of the night and watch the rest of the capital sleeping. A tiny bubble of calm before the inevitable storm of tomorrow, so still Reinhardtzar could tell the exact moment Cain’s easy, relaxed breathing deepened into something resembling sleep. 

“Cain? If you’re tired, go to bed.” The only response Reinhardztar got for a moment was Cain tightening his grip in the fabric of Reinhardtzar’s shirt, like a child. “Seriously.” 

“Comfy,” Cain protested. 

“That’s nice and all—” And it was, really, to know that he was a better presence to rest in than even Cain’s own bedroom. As someone who went through war the same way Cain did, Reinhardtzar understood how difficult and how rare it was to find true ease or respite somewhere, to relax one’s guard entirely. “But what about when I want to sleep?” 

He didn’t get an answer to that, either, only Cain drooping more against him, and Reinhardtzar was reminded, distinctly, of the sulky way Cain had gone to sleep after being left out of fighting Bai Ze. Eventually, Cain stirred slightly, and murmured something so faint it was almost lost in the next gust of wind. 

“Reinhardtzar. Remember when I said you were like family, before we went at fought Gilbert? When we meet up with the captain again, let’s make it official.” 

“What?” He must have misheard, or misunderstood, somehow, but Cain didn’t correct himself, and there was nothing else Reinhardtzar fathomed that he _could_ mean. “Don’t joke about something like that.” 

“I won’t, then,” Cain slurred, drifting off completely between one breath and the next, and nothing more. Just like Cain, to drop something like that in his lap before scampering off to dreamland to escape. Reinhardtzar wasn’t about to wake him up when he obviously needed the rest, which made him too soft of a touch when it came to Cain, he knew. 

When they met the captain again, huh? That could be a ways off, but if anyone was going to come back from the bottom of the sky, it was the Grancypher’s crew. He had plenty of time to mull things over, but—did it really matter when he was already thinking about how long he was going to let Cain pretend this conversation didn’t happen tomorrow, just to watch him squirm a little? Served him right for pulling this. 

“Ask me again when you aren’t half-asleep, idiot,” Reinhardtzar murmured into the crown of Cain’s head, after he’d pressed a kiss there, which was an answer enough. “I might say yes.” 

Cain muttered something nonsensical and turned closer to the warmth of Reinhardtzar’s body against the cold of the night, but a few more minutes, of the quiet and the moonlight playing over Cain’s face and the scent of flowers from the garden in the air, wouldn’t hurt at all.

**Author's Note:**

> There's about a dozen headcanons in here that are gonna be torpedoed but we wouldn't have this problem if they'd just release grand reinhardtzar already. ANYWAY. 
> 
> Title comes from "In Our Bedroom After The War" by Stars 
> 
> Come say hi on twitter @magicocona if you're so inclined. Thank you all so much for reading!


End file.
